


Blood Mountain

by Prettyburgerprincess



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prettyburgerprincess/pseuds/Prettyburgerprincess
Summary: The young ones in the village have been told stories, of course.A lottery. A terrible run. A nightmare come true.But when our Mystic Falls girls are dropped square in the middle of a terrible tradition, will they strive to break it, or will it break them first?
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Davina Claire/Kol Mikaelson, Elena Gilbert/Elijah Mikaelson
Comments: 26
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

Caroline fled into the night at her fastest pace despite the heavy satin skirts, not knowing where Elena's tumble had taken her. The trees that caged her were so terribly dense that they offered only fingers of the full moon's light to guide her way; she tripped a number of times and smashed her shoulder into a tree.

The force of the blow was so hard that she bounced off it and spun in an entire pirouette - somewhere, her dancing coach rolled in her grave at how perfect it was under the circumstance she found herself in.

Caroline tried to catch her breath, face down and hands dug deep into the damp earth.

"Fantastic," she gasped, and rolled onto her side. Clumsy fingers reached to her sore shoulder and touched thick, searing hot blood. "Oh, of _course_."

Although the situation at hand was bleak, Caroline shoved herself up and took a few deep breaths, panicky eyes scanning her surrounds. Though she could not see her pursuer, that did not mean they could not see _her_.

Her eyes found the ceiling of plantlife that seemed almost determined to obscure her vision, but the only star in the sky peirced that vindictive veil. The sole star would lead her in the direction of safety. She knew that somewhere, Elena would be following it too, and firmed her lips.

"Okay," she said with an unladylike grunt. "Up we go, Forbes. No time like the present."

She hoped that by sticking to a path that hadn't been trodden that she would at least hear a pursuer as they came after her. Besides, she knew from her mother that most hunters - wolf and human alike - checked first the easy paths. It made the most sense in terms of speed and to remain stealthy.

But that was why she chose the unbroken road. Because the rest of the people in this fool's game of keeping some mad ancient monster pleased would undoubtedly go for the road that would keep them quiet and fast.

Caroline climbed willfully to her feet, bracing her bleeding shoulder with one hand.

"It doesn't matter," she told herself sternly. "It's you against them. And Elena. If you can find Elena, she can come with, but as it stands she's the enemy and it's every girl for hers-"

A small crack of a branch in the not-so-far distance made her twirl around, eyes widening to try and see into the pitch depths of the wood.

After a moment, another crack. More movement.

"Elena?" she whispered, hope colouring her tone. Her heart soared. If Elena was there, they may have a chance at surviving - they could work together! Protect each other! Find a way out of the mess of this archaic tradition! "Elena...?"

The shape that became was not monster or ally, but an innocent deer, peering at her for a long moment before springing off in the opposite direction.

Not Elena.

But surely one of them had to get out alive; they were smart, healthy girls with a star to follow. One of them must escape fate. One of them had to make it to the clearing in the middle of the woods, and claim sanctuary in the old church under their only beacon, where no undead feet dare cross the threshold.

One must survive.

Which meant, of course, that the other one must be doomed.

She took a breath, sucked back her urge to cry, and started to run with new energy.


	2. Chapter 2

Elena's fall from down the slope of the main road had not been kind to her. She had initially started off skidding on a bed of heavy, wet foliage that made her descent bearable. But as these things happen, soon she was sliding uncontrollably into a overgrown patch of unkind brambles that bit and clawed at her clothes until she was wearing little more than strips of ribbons.

She had finally grabbed hold of a sturdy branch and stopped the slicing of her tender skin, barely able to see down the length of her torso, so dark was the night. She accidentally let slip a cry of pain to try and lift herself out of the cruel plant, and immediately heard the crickets stop singing to mark her location.

Elena bared her teeth and shut her eyes, covering her face with her free arm. Then she rolled to the side, finding new ways to cut into her already tortured body. But at least after that she was free, and left panting and laid out on the forest floor.

She had been taught by her adoptive parents a song that was supposed to help if she was ever to stare down a vampire. She couldn't remember the tune, and that made the lyrics all the more difficult to summon.

_They'll hunt and give chase...?_

No that wasn't it. That wasn't even at the start.

It went something along the lines of: _the Moon's light, the terrible night, innocent's plight...?_

No, that wasn't it.

The only rhyme she knew for sure was:

_Full Moon's eye makes your mother cry._

And if Elena's adoptive mother had've been alive, she was knew that she would've wept for weeks on end to know that she had been selected for this unholiest of sacrifices. Which was why she was trying to remember that stupid song to honor her memory and put up at least a decent fight.

As if thinking of her mother's face summoned the melody, the first words of the folktale started to creep into her mind. As she was more and more filled by the sound of her mother's voice, she picked herself up and started to hobble determinedly toward the only star in the sky.

_On a terrible hill, in a terrible wood, stands a terrible castle, filled with evil and ill good-_

She kept moving. Not fast, but steady. She was able to scan the darkness as though she might read one of her novels, eyes sweeping side to side and checking over bother shoulders. She worried for Caroline, who had been dressed by Bill in hideous silken skirts the color of new butter - no doubt an attempt to catch the vampire's eyes.

Whether it was meant to make her more attractive to eat or to keep made Elena's head spin.

_In the terrible castle, a terrible King reigns, with wolven yellow eyes and vampire's blood in his veins;_

Elena spied something gleaming in the light. A mere flash of something which made her take pause. She deviated only for a moment from the trodden path and dipped into the underbrush, bending down and squinting at the silvery gleam.

A dagger. An old, rusty, sharply curved dagger. Judging by the design inlaid in the handle, it had been laying there a very long time. She didn't recognize any of the characters carved into the hilt, and the style of the blade was completely unfamiliar to her.

_This bastard mixed King has a terrible plight, his urge to hunt is sated by the Harvest Moon's terrible light;_

Elena picked up the dagger and tested it on her thumb. It was by no means in good condition, but it looked formidable and gave her bravery a touch of a boost. She clutched it in her hand, looked up to the guiding star, and started to walk again.

_So the innocents must run, the chosen do flee, with no aid to keep them safe, but for wit and single star to see;_

In the distance, somewhere behind her, Elena heard a girl scream, and for a moment she stopped still, her heart retching up into her throat.

Caroline...?

There was male shouting. One of the other innocents sent by a neighboring clan. His mournful roars were cut so suddenly short Elena could almost feel his spirit as it swept away from his mortal body, and tightened her hand around the hilt of her discovered weapon.

For a long time, she did nothing. Couldn't make her feet move. But then the rhyme began anew in her head as though to encourage her to walk, and she turned watery eyes to the star as she began to move.

_The terrible beast will hunt and give a terrible chase, to select a lifelong mate to take their terrible foretold place;_

_In that terrible castle, away from human gaze, the terrible beast will bewed their captured forever and always._


	3. Chapter 3

Caroline, at first, did not believe her eyes. The thick line of trees was clearing, yes, but more importantly Elena was standing there, looking back.

"Are you a trick?" the Elena vision said.

Caroline burst into tears.

"Are _you_?" she said, and ran as quickly as she could to gather her friend near to her. They couldn't embrace, not as damaged as they both were - and it did look like Elena had lost a fight with a pair of shears, but Caroline had a sizable hole in her upper shoulder, so-

"We're nearly there, Care," Elena urged. "Come on, let's go. As soon as we get into the church we'll be safe-"

"Yes. Safe. Together," Caroline said, holding her sore shoulder in one hand and taking Elena's fingers in the other.

They weren't as fast as usual, crossing the grassy earth. The expanse of land between them was flat and easy, but it was still hard to walk it. Wobbly legs, gone soft with relief and exhaustion, turned what should've been an easy stroll into quite a feat.

"I'm so glad," Elena whispered, squeezing her fingers. "So glad, that I saw you, that we found each other, I thought I'd die without being near to a friend again-"

"Me too," Caroline said, and was about to reach out and unlock the heavy iron handle when Elena's hand was ripped away from her - a huge rush of air swept her tresses to the side. She blinked at the space where her friend had been, then to her outstretched hand.

Elena was still near, but behind her, grunting in exertion and audibly struggling.

If Caroline just opened the door and stepped in, the night would be done. She would be safe. she was so close to going home; to seeing Tyler and Matt and her mother once more.

But to know that she did nothing to help Elena, that would kill her in a different way.

So she turned and saw a vampire set upon her, snatching a blade from her hand and idly throwing it away. He was dark haired and dark eyed, quite well dressed for someone who had blood soaking the front of his ensemble.

He eased out a soothing noise, as though to quiet Elena, and trapped both her hands under his by her head.

"Impossible," he murmured, leaning heavily over her, a curtain of his hair obstructing his face. Caroline stepped off the porch and her knees shook in terror. "Human. Hello, there."

Elena did her best to buck him off, to wiggle free, to ram her knee into his back. But he just gently hushed her again, and tilted his head down to her throat, which is when Elena let out a desperate cry as his wicked teeth pierced her flesh.

Caroline didn't even remember moving, so swift was her action. She had the knife stabbed right into his back, nearly dead on between his shoulder blades, and had _no idea_ where her strength to front kick him came from, but it knocked him clear off of Elena's waist.

Then she was scrambling to get Elena up, her hands wet with her blood and his, turning to shove open the door and get them both to safety.

"You should've just gone in, love," drawled the man standing there. His eyes were both yellow for the wolf and black for the vampire, and unlike the other man he was only dressed in trousers. Not even boots.

Caroline felt Elena's arm go around her waist and the two of them stood there, staring, unsure of how to face death. Her heart was pounding like a drum, her fear echoed in the merciless squeeze of her dear friend's embrace.

She wet her lips, lashes fluttering, unable to so much as blink for fear her would move.

The terrible King cracked a smile that was impressed but not kind, and covered in gore.

"Every time we play this little game," he mused. "You lot get closer and closer."

"I've already laid claim to that one," insisted the man behind them. Caroline flinched and looked over her shoulder at him, and saw he reached behind his head and slowly dislodged the blade. With a flex of his jaw, he let it fall to the ground. "You can have or dispose of the blonde."

"I want the one who rings so soundly of dear Katerina," the Hybrid said, mockingly coy. "I'll give you my finest horse."

"You ruined Katerina," the dark haired one protested firmly. "I'll not let you do it again. She's mine. I marked her."

"And her delicious little friend drove a dagger into your back and unseated you," he retorted, eyes flashing. "Why not chew on her for a few decades and reclaim your ego?"

"My ego is not bruised by the fight of humans, Niklaus," the dark haired one assured him. "Though I cannot say I wouldn't deeply appreciate if you were to step to the plate and take her in my stead. It's this one or the redhead. Kol made his claim and we ate the rest."

The Hybrid chuckled darkly.

Caroline took a step to the side and his frightening eyes flicked to her, mouth still twisted in a smile. He made no move towards them - neither did the one behind them, she swiveled to check - but she sensed that one more step would change that.

"I haven't had a blonde in too long," he said, as though that decided something. "The redhead can go home."

"What does that mean?" Elena breathed. Something about her face changed, as though she had been blessed with a sudden thought. A piece of the puzzle that slotted into place, making her wide eyes narrow in fury. Again, she asked him, but this time much more angrily: "What does _that_ mean?!"

"To paraphrase, I like blondes," he repeated. "The redhead will go home."

Caroline shook, she held Elena so tight she felt her shoulder wound scream with agony. But her tiny friend, spoiled with temper, was not to be contained.

"Are you saying," she hissed. "That you willfully let at least one of the sacrifices go?"

Caroline blinked at her. _What?_

"If we killed all of you every time," he drawled. "There would be a revolt and the game would be done. Hope is such a dangerous thing in humans, that they would send twelve of their beautiful innocent creatures to die, if it meant one of them might be safe."

"You're evil," Elena spat.

"Thank you for noticing," he mused. "Well? Tick tock, Elijah. Take your little doppleganger and escort her home. I still have some chasing to do of my new friend, here."

"No," Elena said. "We won't play your game."

"Oh," the Hybrid said, his eyes flashing. "It's adorable you think you have the choice."

Again, much too quickly, Elena was pulled out of Caroline's arms, though she was holding on as fiercely as she could manage. She was ripped away with such force that Caroline was forced to spin and watch the other vampire embrace her, wildly struggling, her lengthy hair dangling like silken ribbons.

"Hush," the man soothed her. "It's over and done with. I won't hurt you."

Elena had many things to say about that, but Caroline couldn't hear over the rush of terror in her mind. The Hybrid took a step toward her, and her idiot human brain demanded she _run_.


	4. Chapter 4

"Don't, Caroline," Elena said fitfully. She tried everything to get out of the man's grip but he wouldn't relent. His front was to her back and she felt the bang of his undead heart on her shoulder. "Don't, it's what they want, don't give them what they want-"

But Caroline had already lifted the front of her dress and started bolting back toward the forest.

The terrible King gave a truly wicked grin, his bare feet placed slowly and deliberately into the earth. He rolled his head on his shoulders, then flexed his hands, and didn't bother to so much as look back at them.

"Run, run, run, as fast as you can," he said, amused, to himself.

"Don't play with your food before you eat it," the brother scoffed.

The Hybrid paid him no mind. He started his leisurely stroll in the direction that Caroline had fled, her pale golden dress disappearing into the dark night as she crashed into the many leaves once more.

Elena tried to wrestle her arms free - she was sure she could slip his grip, given that she was bleeding and slippery - but to no avail. She tried to toss her head back and hit his nose, but he held her head to his shoulder.

"Hush," he soothed. "It's over."

She tried to stomp on his foot, but his boot was so thick and well made it did more damage to her than him anyway. She kicked and jerked forward her shoulders, tried to tear strips out of his branding arm with her nails, but she was weaker than she estimated, and could barely form a claw on the angle he had her.

She watched the awful King melt into the blackness of the forest, and let loose a sob.

"Hush," he murmured. "There, there. It's done now. Be still."

Her heart was pounding so loudly it was a wonder she could hear anything else at all. He seemed to sense when she was at her weakest, bending his knees to allow her to spill from his restraining embrace onto the grass.

Elena sprawled, weeping softly once she landed, feeling drained and mortified. She lay exactly as she had landed, with her stinging body curled on the side, facing the church. They had been so close to salvation. So close to being sent home. And it had all been some perverse game they could never win?

"You two are very good friends?" he guessed.

She couldn't speak. She was afraid of what might come out. The fact that he stayed so close, hovering in a crouch beside her, made her want to curl into a ball and die.

She nodded, a bare inclination of her head.

"If it means anything to you," he mentioned. "She is going to survive the night. You'll see her tomorrow."

"Then I wish she'd died," she whispered hatefully. "And I wish I had died, too."

He sighed, and sat by her on the grass, obstructing her view of the sanctuary of the hallowed grounds. She dared look up at him, glaring heatedly, somewhat diminished by the tears that welled and fell from her eyes.

"It isn't so terrible to have been caught," he told her softly. "I won't lie and say it is fair; it is not. You will feel very lonely, and I'm certain you will hate me for a very long time. But I am a patient man, and I will wait. I have done so before, and I will do so again."

Elena averted her gaze to his hand, laid flat on the grass, and scowled at it. Tears filled the space on her nose and then poured over it. She felt pathetic and very weak, and swallowed back the urge to sob.

_How many times have they done this?_ she wondered. _Put out a call to send the beautiful and the innocent into their mountain, and have them run around in the dark for a task they cannot win?_

It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He was a man, after all, even with his sharp teeth and black eyes. He would do to her what men did to women they wanted control of, and there was precisely nothing she could do about it.

Even thinking of having him on her again made her tremble, and start to cry anew. She was so ashamed of the display she managed to push herself up and hug her knees, pressing her knees into her eyes to try and hide the tears.

He laid his hand on her shoulder. A comforting gesture. But to her mind it read only that he meant to flip her over and have his way with her on the ground like an animal. He was a monster, a vicious incubus demon, and she scrambled to her feet and snatched the bloodied knife from the ground, holding it between them. The point, aimed at him, shook.

He did not move from the ground.

"I won't hurt you," he told her patiently. "You are the spoils of my victory. I will treat you well."

"Don't come near me," she warned, her throat wavering on the words. A damnable idea crossed her mind's eye.

"Have they told you much of why you must complete the run?" he asked carefully. "I can see they do not tell you what can happen when you are chosen."

"Don't," she said again, stronger this time.

"This ritual, that keeps us trapped on the mountain," he said, rolling slowly and easily to his knees. His gaze never wavered from her. "It demands -"

"I know," she said sharply. She took a step back. "Everyone knows what it is."

"So they have taken the warning we gave them a hundred years ago," he said, "But did they heed that they should tell you what happens, when we choose one of the offered?"

She did not answer, but she did take another step away from him.

He slowly rose to his feet, still maintaining complete eye contact.

"Whatever it is you're saying," she told him, and swallowed. "I won't believe you. You're insidious."

"Situationally," he agreed.

"I know they-" she choked. "You - mean to - marry us-"

"In a way," he said, lowering his tone to something more gentle. "I imagine it would be less offensive, these days, to phrase it that way. Marriage. As though we are beholden to a god as young as yours."

She made a slashing movement with the knife and planted herself like a tree.

"You think I'll allow you to touch me?" she said, vibrating now with nervous, hateful energy.

"I won't hurt you," he told her again. He lifted a hand to her, palm up. As though he expected she'd put the knife in his hand and behave herself. "I understand you are frightened. You are so young, and you have no way of knowing what it is that I mean for you. Let me tell you. Let me explain."

"Ah, my brother the wordsmith," drawled a voice, making Elena flinch. "Still trying to chat them around to the idea of conjugal slavery?"

The vampire that approached was covered in gore, his shirt untied. In his arms hung a limply set woman, bright blood smeared around an impossibly white neck. She didn't look alive, aside from the shallow rise and fall of her belly.

"Leave us be," warned the elder.

"Just compel her and be done," the younger scoffed. He turned towards her, eyebrows hiking. "Bloody hell. Katerina...?"

Elena answered him by pointing the knife in his direction.

"Would you just look at-? Does Nik know you have her?" His eyes glittered. "Has he seen her?"

"He has, and he has conceded that I marked her first," the vampire said tightly. "Go away, Kol."

"Ooh, bet he didn't like that. Another Katerina. How fun." His eyes went up and down the shredded pieces of Elena's clothes. "She's her every inch. Gods above. Can I-?"

"Go away, Kol," the vampire repeated. Finally, he took his eyes from Elena, which made her heart leap in her chest. It was her chance to enact her plan, and spoil his fun. "I mean it. Do not make me ask again."

She turned the knife's blade in her hand and sucked in a big breath of air. Her wrist was already damaged by her fall so she could see that it bled freely. But just a little more freely, and she would escape the fate of being made some slave kept in the vampire's bedchambers.

She brought the blade down hard and fast, and the very edge bit into her skin a split second before it was taken from her hand. She followed through with the movement of her slice, her fist swinging down and squarely into her own hip.

The vampire took her by the nape and tilted her head back, his face impassive.

"I have said I will not hurt you," he told her. He ignored the swinging of her fists against his chest and belly. "And I will not let you hurt yourself. Stop it."

Stupidly, her fists obeyed, laying heavy and tired on his chest. She could feel his heart again, and it made her knees weak.

"I'll stop it," she whispered. New tears flooded her eyes. "How -? How are you _making_ me-?"

"Hush," the man said softly, and Elena - much to her surprise - _hushed_.

"Oh, they don't tell them anything," teased the younger, looking unfairly pleased by the display. He came to stand by his elder, peering at her with curiosity and no empathy. "They lead all their pretty lambs into the dark without so much a word of advice, don't they?"

"You will never hurt yourself on purpose again," he instructed her.

"I will never hurt myself on purpose again," she repeated stupidly.

"There, now." His thumb slid under her eye, collecting tears. "Don't cry. Won't you tell me your name?"

"Elena," she breathed out. "Gilbert."

"Beautiful," he mentioned. He stroked her face and studied her, eyes roving like one might inspect a painting. "I am Elijah. This is my brother Kol. Are you hurt very badly?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I feel hurt. But I can walk."

"Would you prefer if I carried you?"

"No. I don't want you to touch me."

"Of course," he said, in apparent acquiesce. "I understand. Forgive me for indulging, but if you insist on walking I will assist you."

"I forgive you," she said.

"She's like Katerina was," the man named Kol said thoughtfully. He adjusted his grip on the lady. "Before Nik got his teeth into her."

"I know," Elijah acknowledged. He let Elena's face go and undid the buttons on his fine coat, shedding it and winding it around her. When she flinched as satin settled on her new cuts and scratches, he pursed his lips. "Elena, would you find it entirely abhorrent to consume blood, if that meant you could heal?"

"Yes, and I would hate you even more if you made me," she told him fairly.

He bowed his head, then supported her under the arm, and opened his hand to the forest, the direction from where she had come.

"Then let me walk you home, where I can tend your wounds more naturally," he said.

She put one foot in front of the other and allowed him to steer her, although there wasn't much a choice where that was concerned.


	5. Chapter 5

Caroline watched the King prowl up to her gown, hanging discarded on a tree. She had stuffed it with some wide leaves to make it look fuller, but a pesky breeze danced on the air and made it sway too hard. The Hybrid stopped several feet away, lifting his nose to the wind.

It was seconds before he followed the scent over to where Caroline was, perched in a tree in nothing but her corset and silken underskirt, hugging the trunk for dear life.

As the sun began to come up in the distance, she saw his smile crack on his face and he broke into a run to get to her. He circled the bottom of the tree before looking up, victorious.

"All things considered," he said throatily. "You put up quite the fight, love. Do come down, now."

"I think not," she retorted, and hugged the tree tighter. "I know the old laws. If that sun comes up you will burn!"

"I'm the Hybrid," he drawled. "It is a very clever little plan you came up with here, but it won't work on me. The sun won't harm me an inch."

"Well," she said sharply. "That was only my second plan! The old laws _also_ say that if you have't caught your kill by the time the sun touches it, it's not your kill." And with all the dignity she could muster, looked down at him and stuck out her tongue.

He, to her surprise, laughed.

"Oh, you precious thing," he mused. "You think I cannot climb that tree and collect you? The sun won't touch you before I do."

"Prove it," she dared, and watched him fall for her bait.

Just like her dress being left in the tree, it as a distraction. A pretty thing left out innocently in the open, waiting for his brutish advance. He was only one rung up the tree before the branch under his bare foot broke and he flailed on the way down, hitting and snapping several other branches before he got a chance to catch himself on the trunk.

Caroline didn't linger. She hugged the tree and carefully made her way up, using only the very insides of the branches. It didn't take her pursuer long to figure out she had cut notches into the bottom of every branch, making them impossible to climb.

He growled and it made her heart squeeze, but she didn't stop climbing. The tender insides of her thighs were so tightly clenched around the trunk she felt herself bruising, and the hole in her shoulder seared every time she extended her arm, but she did not stop.

The higher she climbed, the closer to the sun she got. If it hit her first, he wasn't allowed to kill her. It was the rules. And Caroline _loved_ the rules.

He was fast, and in far better physical condition, but he was frustrated and that made him clumsy. Caroline was injured and exhausted, but she was fighting for her life, and had made sure she knew which branches were safe for her.

At the crest of the tree, she reached up and the sun warmed the tips of her fingers, before caressing her hand, and her wrist. Smug, she looked down as he approached, coming to a halt when he looked up and saw her waiting.

His brow twitched.

"You're clever," he noted dryly.

"Thank you for noticing," she retorted. She put her hand around the tree. The branch under her foot gave a warning creak, and she shifted to stand on another. "So. Where's the church? That's where my family will collect me from, isn't it?"

"They don't collect anyone," he replied. "They're not dumb enough to step foot on the mountain. Climb down."

She was still suspicious of him, but she climbed down. He had been right when he told her the sun wouldn't harm him, because by the time her feet touched the earth, the sun had flooded the forest. Everything was in crisp, bright green, and there were singing birds and glistening dew.

She dusted off her silken skirts and held her damaged arm, looking at him expectantly.

"Well?" she said.

"Well," he muttered, and inclined his head. "Come this way."

She followed as fast as she was able. Yes she was injured, but she was also in the most beautiful heeled slippers, and they were certainly not made for the forest terrain.

They walked for a long time without speaking. Finally, the silence got to her.

"Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"The run," she clarified. "The boundary spell keeps you locked in here with innocent blood spilt into it, I know that. But why wouldn't you just... let them live, and break the spell?"

"You've had too much time to think," he scoffed. "Aren't you glad you survived?"

"Of course I am," she replied indignantly. "I don't want to die."

"So would you have that I spilt your innocent blood to keep the world safe?" he demanded.

"No," she said sharply. "You spilt enough. I want to know if you were so desperate to have your way off the mountain, why wouldn't you?"

"What makes you think I want off the mountain?" he asked. "That's very bold of you."

"Why wouldn't you? It's locked you in. You starve, you have no - no source of entertainment, or new information, and you have a terrible home and no new lifeblood to consume!"

He laughed.

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

"In the midst of running for your life and somehow evading me, and setting up quite a little trap, you thought about the whys and hows. I think that's interesting."

"I wasn't thinking about this last night," she admitted. "I've always thought about this."

"Truly?" he mused.

"Yes. I thought it would be lonely. That I wouldn't want to be here."

He glanced at her then, his mouth twisted.

"Well. I'm sorry that you ended up here then. Who nominated you?"

She tightened her mouth and snatched her dress from the tree, turning her back to him.

"Why so modest? I've already seen everything you're trying to hide."

"You have _not_."

"Oh contraire. Recall I had to climb up from under you, love."

"You're disgusting!" she exclaimed, trying to find a way into her sleeve that wouldn't cause her wounded shoulder so much pain. "Ugh, the nerve of you, to mock me like that - when it's earned me my free-! Ouch!"

"Listen," he said, taking the dress in his hands. He eased it away from her, and let it fall to the floor. "You need not be so modest here. It's just you and I. And I for one would rather you didn't hurt yourself, wouldn't you?"

She glowered.

"Don't pretend you care about me."

"I don't. I just don't like to see such a pretty face screwed up in pain." He gave her what she thought he must think was a charming smile. Then she sniffed, and tilted her face up. "Much better."

"I don't care that you think I'm pretty," she told him.

"You know you're pretty, why even bother trying to hide what I think?" he mused.

"Propriety."

"I am not following societal rules for no reason that benefits me. I'm older than society."

She supposed that was true. But still.

"You're incorrigible."

"I'm beginning to think you would've been a better suited match to my brother Elijah," he muttered. "The pair of you are very proud."

"If you're going to try and tell me you aren't a proud man, I will call you a liar."

"I am a proud man," he exclaimed. "But at least I don't bloody shy away from that. You will pretend all your life that you are a demure and prim little princess, and that isn't you."

"How dare you presume to know me?" she asked, scandalized. "After chasing me around a forest all night!"

"The act of the hunt will tell me everything I need to know about a person," he said. "I've been doing this a long time. You were interesting."

"Oh!" she said, and threw her one available hand up at him. "Interesting! That's all you've got to say to me? I single handedly bore your attention for hours, lost you in my trail, devised not one, but three different plans in which I bested you, and you call that interesting!"

"It is," he mused. "Surely you don't count the dress amongst the ways that you bested me. That was a poor excuse for a diversion and you know it."

"It was not my first plan," she sniffed. "But I couldn't climb belted and skirted."

"Your first plan was to have me fall and hurt myself?"

"I needed to touch the sun first. To burn you and to save me from being your kill."

"But it wasn't your first plan?" he reiterated. As though he sensed blood in the water at her ignoring him, he persisted. "Tell me what your first plan was. Go on. It's just us. I won't judge you too terribly."

"Death," she said dryly. She glanced over and looked him square in the eye. "If you would've found me before I had a handle on my plan, I would've jumped head first from the top of that tree."

He thinned his lips.

"I don't think I like the sound of that," he said.

"Well I didn't much like the sound of being some Hybrid chew toy," she scoffed.

"You'll hardly be a chewtoy," he amended.

"Would have been," she corrected. "I'm free now."

"What makes you say that?" he wanted to know.

Her heart skipped a beat.

"Because I touched the sun after you hunted me."

"Yes, you did," he said easily, and held a branch down for her.

Caroline stepped forward and felt her stomach tighten. He had not lead her to the church, not even to the boundary line. He had lead her to a huge castle that stood in well manicured gardens, the sun just breaking the top of it's highest tower.

" _What_ ," she said, and swallowed. "Is the meaning of this?"

"Well you said it yourself," he mused. "The old rules are true and correct. If I begin to hunt, and my kill touches the sun without me having caught it, the kill must walk free."

Her lip trembled. Her eyes darted to try and find a weapon of some kind, but all there was on offer was the Hybrid himself or a handful of low lying branches.

"I did it," she said faintly. "I touched the sun. You can't kill me."

"Whoever said I meant to kill you?" he wondered.

Her world swirled and spun. She would never, not in a hundred years, admit to fainting, but when she came to she was being carried and a roof was passing over her head. The sheer exhaustion of the evening caught up with her, and she allowed herself to be consumed by the blissful swell of darkness behind her limbs.


	6. Chapter 6

Elena hugged her knees and tried to feel warmth returning into her body. Dawn was slowly beginning to fill her gifted room, and although it was not cold in the sense of temperature she felt frozen.

Whatever magic they had over her... they used it well. She hadn't been able to protest the cleaning and bandaging of her wounds by the various handmaidens, and she hadn't been able to resist taking a warm bath before dressing in new clothes and climbing into the big bed.

Her one mercy was that neither of the vampires were there to see it. Only the handmaidens - who didn't speak her language, or were otherwise very cruel to ignore her. The other woman, the one Kol had bitten and claimed, was laid out on another bed. She hadn't stirred, but she was still breathing. Even if she had woken, Elena could do nothing. She had tried the door to find it locked, and the windows to find them too far from the ground to be useful to an escape attempt.

There was one more grand bed in the room, though it stood empty. Elena could guess it was meant for Caroline, but she had not yet appeared.

The room itself was beautiful, dressed with the latest high societal fashion. The bedheads were painted in goldleaf, painstakingly handcrafted to resemble a bunch of wildflowers. Each bed was a different color - Elena's was sky blue, the unnamed woman's was a soft green, and Caroline's was a blushing pink. The rest of the room was much the same, with matching armoires and dressing tables. It would appear that they were preparing for the women to share the room for some time.

The sound of footsteps made Elena go stiff, and then leap off her bed to find something heavy she would be able to bash the brain out of someone with. She found an ornate jewelry box full of priceless gems and chains, but held it shut and kept it behind her hip.

She waited, clear across the room, and then saw the handle turn.

Handmaidens filled the space, carrying the large copper tub between them. They bustled about, setting a small fire to warm the water from beneath, and poured more water in with buckets.

"We've already been bathed," she said.

No one so much as looked at her.

She inched closer, mindful to stay out of their way. There was at least twelve of them bustling about, organizing things, preparing soaps and towels and new bedclothes. Two turned back the covers on the pink bed, and Elena pieced together moments before that she was going to see her friend.

As though summoned by the flare of hope in her chest, Caroline was carried around the corner, looking quite pale and filthy. She was only in her corset and silken skirt, the wound in her shoulder dark red and crusting. There was visible bruising around it to make it look even more severe than it truly was.

"What did you do?!" came out of her mouth before she could think about the consequences. She squared off at the Hybrid who was midway into lowering her friend upon a loveseat, and tightened her grip on her weapon.

"I caught her," he said dryly, and arched a brow. He sat Caroline up, supported on each side by a handmaiden, one of whom presented smelling salts to rouse her with.

Caroline sniffed and jerked awake, hand flying to her sore shoulder before checking both sides of her throat with clumsy fingers. She shakily pushed up and stumbled, looking around with wide, bewildered eyes.

"Elena," she breathed. "Oh mercy, _Elena_ -"

They crashed together, hugging each other fiercely. Elena felt hot tears on her back and tightened her grip.

"Are you alright?" she asked desperately.

Caroline let her go and wiped quickly under her eyes.

"I thought I was safe," she mumbled grumpily. "He lead me to believe I had made myself safe, and then he-"

"Well you are safe. Here. In this room," he mentioned airily. "This is your sanctuary, you see."

"Liar," Caroline accused.

"I am many things, love, a liar among them," he said, still too casually to be considered respectful. "But not to you, and not tonight. I never told you that I would walk you to the boarder, you took the liberty of assuming-"

"You're evil," Caroline bit, her lovely face screwed up in fear and rage. A flood of color began to fill her cheeks, and Elena saw the awful warning glaze of her eyes as she began to cry. "You didn't have to let me th-think I-... That I could've been safe."

"You were only in danger when the rest were running," was his attempt at consoling. "You were safe as houses once I decided you were to be mine-"

"We will never be anything of yours," Elena said flatly.

"We'd rather die!" Caroline told him.

She shed her tears and hid her face, turning willfully away from him, sniffing loudly. She had never been a pretty crier and Elena knew her shame - neither of them were. So she cuddled Caroline near, hiding her face against her shoulder for some semblance of peace. She gave the Hybrid a terrible glare, thinking about pummeling his stupid face in with the jewelry box still clenched in her hand.

"They always say that," he said, glancing across at a maid, who bowed her head quickly. "'I hate you, you're vile, I'll never marry you, I'd rather be dead.' Don't you find they always say the same things, year after year?"

The handmaiden said nothing, just dropped into a lower bow.

"Perhaps if you _men_ weren't so predictable," Elena said through her teeth. "You wouldn't be so _bored_."

"Predictable!" he scoffed. "Hardly. You don't know the half of what you're in for!"

"I don't need you to tell me the details, I assure you - neither of us are strangers to men with power in their hands. You'll use your insidious power to have us bend to your every whim; you'll have us kneel and suck, and lay down with our legs up until your black heart's content before you slaughter us."

"Is that what you think this is?" he said, arching his brows.

"If you mean to assault us, get it over with," Elena demanded. "Or get out."

"Oh?" He said with a grin that looked half mad. "Are you telling me what to do in my own house?" He took a meaningful step forward, and Elena got ready to bowl the jewelry box into his guts, so she could snatch up the fire-poker beside them and beat him in the back of the head with it while he was winded.

"No, no, no. If he comes near to me, I'll die," Caroline confessed, trembling all over. She hung over Elena like a blanket, which would rather impede her ability to bash the Hybrid to death. "I'll die, Elena, I'm so embarrassed-"

She cut off her wobbly words with a choked intake of air, and buried her flooding eyes against Elena's throat.

The Hybrid considered them, slowly holding up his hands.

"Alright. Alright. I've done this before." He walked to the door, making sure to leave heavy footfalls in his wake. The handmaidens scurried out of his way, half bent, facing the floor. "I know how to play this game, don't you worry. You'll have your mourning period. If anyone needs anything, ring the bell for the maids."

He motioned to a large rope beside the door, then shut it behind him on the way out.

"He's gone," Elena murmured, and Caroline burst into tears.

She cried for a long time. So long that Elena eventually joined her, and they sank to the floor, weeping together. The handmaidens, of which there were plenty, didn't make a noise, or a single movements to console them. Elena let go of the box and one of them scooped it up, cleaned her fingerprints from it, and put it back from whence it came.

Once the crying was done, and the sun was well and truly in the sky, Elena pulled Caroline's head up to hold it in both hands. They were equally swollen and red, with her forehead vein throbbing and Caroline's poor skin blotchy and irritated.

"You're so ugly right now," she mentioned.

Caroline laughed, and snot bubbled from her nose.

She tried to catch it, but Elena was already laughing at her, the last tears squeezed from her eyes. She wiped her face, then Caroline's, and tried to smile.

"You're so ugly," Caroline retorted, dabbing her silk skirt under her eyes. She sniffed something horribly solid. "Ugh. Somehow I feel worse."

"Are you okay?"

"No." Caroline shook her head, and looked to her wounded shoulder. It was swollen even more, and though it had stopped bleeding there was an unsightly amount of crusty blood around the wound.

The handmaidens appeared, carrying medical supplies. They held them out, and Elena took them, mindful of Caroline's flinching. When she had finished cleaning and bandaging, one of the ladies took Caroline's hand and wrapped it in such a way that it hung across her body in a sling.

Then she opened her hand to the bathtub, still bubbling away, and inclined her head.

"I suppose it can't hurt," Caroline muttered, and allowed herself to be undressed by unfamiliar hands to settle in the water. She washed quickly, without wetting the sling, then got out and was dressed.

Elena crawled into the big blue bed and Caroline followed her, toasty warm from the water.

They didn't say anything for a while, just watched the flurry of silent activity as the maidens cleaned up and emptied the room one by one, each of them carrying something. The click of a bolt into a lock was unmistakable.

Elena looked over at the girl on the bed.

"Should we try and wake her?" she wondered.

"Let her sleep," Caroline whispered. "At least one of us should. I'm so tired, but every time I think of closing my eyes, I think they'll sneak up on me."

"Me too," Elena admitted. She considered something. "You rest. I'll watch for them, and keep an eye on her. I'll wake you if I need to sleep."

Caroline considered that for a moment before agreeing.

"Should I go to the free bed?" she wondered.

"No," Elena said, perhaps a touch too quickly. "Sleep here, so I know I'm not alone."


	7. Chapter 7

It was midnight when the girl on the green bed woke. She stirred in her sleep for a moment, and Caroline detangled from Elena to pad over to her quietly. She kept her distance.

Her eyes were awfully wide, and pretty in her pale face. She sat up, saw Caroline, and cringed into a small ball, a hand flying to her neck.

"I'm not one of them," Caroline said quickly. "I was caught, the same as you."

"Caught?" the girl repeated.

"Yes," Caroline said gravely. "In the run."

"The... run..." the girl repeated. Her owl eyes traveled the room, blinking too much. Her mouth popped open and she appeared to bed saying something, but Caroline couldn't hear the words.

"Uhm," she said. "I'm Caroline."

"Davina," she said faintly, and pulled back the covers. She put her feet on the floor and walked around the beautiful room, looking out the high window. "Oh, mercy. I can see my village from here..."

"Where?" Caroline asked, following. "Where are you from?"

"Orleans," Davina said, pointing to a distant smattering of lights beyond the dark forest, at the base of the mountain side. "I can see the church, too..."

Caroline thought she might mean the church they were supposed to have run to, but no. It was the tiniest tower amongst the darkness, lit up from the inside.

"How are you feeling?" Caroline asked, preparing for tears, or fear, or a tantrum. The girl was younger than she and Elena both, only a child, really. Any of those terrible feelings would certainly make sense.

"Grand," said the girl, and smiled softly. "Though I miss my family, I suppose that's to be expected."

"I miss mine, too," Caroline said. She swallowed. "Well, my mother, at least. My father is the one who nominated me."

"Nominated?" the girl repeated, her brows coming together.

"Yes," Caroline said. Her smile was not happy. "My own father forced me to be in selection for the run."

"Selection?" Davina said. She blinked her owlish eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the selection. To go before the Council. To see who among the young are beautiful and innocent, to fit the criteria for the sacrifice?"

"At the risk of sounding like a parrot," Davina said. "What are you talking about?"

"The criteria. For the run?" Caroline said. She waited, expecting recognition. When she received none, she pressed on. "Only the beautiful and the innocent can cross the boarder to spill their blood?"

"I think," Davina said slowly. "You and I might have slightly different versions of what happens here."

"How?" Caroline said. "They need innocent blood to keep the boarder standing!"

"No," Davina said, and had the nerve to look at Caroline like she was the mad one! "No they don't. You're mixing up your legends."

"What legends?"

"The Mikealson curse, and the Boundary?" she said, and lifted a brow. "They aren't the same thing. You're talking about them like they're one in the same."

"I don't know what you mean," Caroline said slowly. "You lost a lot of blood, Davina, I think you're confused."

"I let him take my blood," the girl said mildly. Caroline recoiled in horror and Davina blinked. "Wait, you really... you fought them off? Who picked you?"

"Who _picked_ -?" Caroline's voice cracked. She glanced over at Elena, who remained asleep, then lowered her voice. "The King. The Hybrid. He tricked me."

"Oh, he would, he's so clever," Davina gushed. "Did he ambush you? Trap you in a net? You must feel spectacular for having his attention!"

"Oh, yes, amazing," Caroline said facetiously, and was surprised to see hurt flash on Davina's face. "You're... you're serious?"

"Tell me something," Davina said. "Do you-? Where are you from?"

"Mystic Falls," Caroline offered. "We both are."

"Oh," Davina said, like something finally made sense. "Oh, you poor thing."

"What? No. You poor thing," Caroline said defensively. "Wait, what? Why am I a poor-? You're little more than a child!"

"I'm sixteen," Davina said promptly. "I'm old enough to volunteer."

"Volunteer-?" Caroline said loudly, and Elena sat up with a terrible jolt.

For a second, she seemed scared, in unfamiliar place and still hurt from the night before. But when she saw Caroline and Davina, she relaxed a fraction.

"Are we safe?" she said thickly.

"For now," Caroline agreed.

"How long was I asleep?"

"A few hours. You need more."

Elena ignored her, and got out of the bed slowly, looking like an eighty year old for how slowly she moved and held her lower back. She gave Davina a smile.

"Hey, I'm Elena. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Davina said. "I'm Davina. I'm just confused about a few things from your friend."

"I'm not being confusing," Caroline said. "You are."

"You say the run and the boarder are the same thing," Davina said. "They're not."

"Yes they are. Elena, tell her."

"They hold the run to spill innocent blood to keep the boarder up," Elena explained.

"No," Davina protested. "They just need a sacrifice for the boarder, and they need it once a year instead of once every hundred. We send in our criminals as they're found guilty. Has no one ever told you this?"

"What?" Caroline said sharply.

"The boarder isn't the part that needs the innocent blood," Davina said. "The curse is."

Elena and Caroline shared a look.

"She lost a lot of blood," Elena said in the girl's defense.

"I asked him to," Davina said hotly. She threw up her hands. "I wanted him to!"

"Why?"

"Because if he's going to be my husband, and I'm going to break his curse, then I want to please him," she exclaimed. "Gods above! How on earth did they ever pick you over any of the other girls I came in with?"

"How many came with you?" Elena asked curiously.

"Seven," Davina said, voice hard. "All trying to win a Mikealson."

"Win one?" Caroline said loudly. "Why would you want to win one?"

"To break their curse and win their favor!" Davina retorted. "Don't you two know... literally anything?"

"Hey," Elena warned.

"We know the truth," Caroline said. "That they're evil and mean to use us!"

" _What._ " Davina said, and exhaled a long breath. "No. No, they don't."

"Of course they do," Elena said. "They're men who drain their victims of their lifeblood."

"They won't, not to us," Davina said triumphantly. "We're different. We're special. They chose us because they believe we can break the curse."

"You keep saying that-" Caroline huffed. "What curse?"

" _The_ curse," Davina emphasized. She looked between the two of them. "Oh, mercy, you don't know... anything... Why didn't your elders tell you the truth?"

"The truth is that these Mikealson men are the same as all men," Caroline said, her voice hard. "They have one intention with ladies under their power."

"Well, obviously that comes later," the girl said, exasperated now. "But it's not the be all and end all of this whole situation. Why don't you explain your side to me?"

"Our side?" Caroline repeated. "The way things are? Someone filled your head with lies to make you happy about being thrown to the lions!"

"Someone kept you in the dark about why the run is held," Davina insisted. She looked between them. "So you're telling me, you believe that once every hundred years, innocent blood needs to be spilt to keep the boarder standing between the Mikealsons and the rest of the world?"

"Obviously," Caroline said dryly.

"Then why would they spill the blood, if it keeps them trapped on the mountain?" Davina asked.

"Well - because they're monsters who eat people!" Caroline exclaimed, even though the thought had crossed her mind countless times. "They can't help themselves! They starve up here without a supply of blood!"

"But..." Elena said thoughtfully. "They have all those handmaidens... surely they aren't all vampires?"

"They can't make vampires on this mountain," Davina said quickly. "It's part of the curse. They have to suffer with only their family for company for as long as they live."

Caroline's brain was reeling. Come to think of it, the King had been awfully level headed, if a bit of an evil ass, when he'd apprehended her. He hadn't seemed out of control and thirsty for her blood - her hadn't even bitten her.

"Why do they choose one each?" Elena said softly.

"To marry," Davina said, breathing a relieved sigh that at the very least, one person was humoring her. "To fall in love with."

"WHAT!" Caroline bellowed, so suddenly the girl took a fright and flinched back. "THEY WANT TO _WHAT_!?"

"They're a thousand years old," Davina said quickly. "They're marked by death and misdeeds. Only a pure heart that can love them truly can break the curse -"

"WHAT!" Was the only thing Caroline could get out. "WHAT!"

"Shush," Davina scolded. "Listen. Love will break their curse. That's why we need to be-..."

A strange look crossed her face. She looked, bewildered, between Caroline and Elena.

"That's why your elders don't tell you what the run is for," she whispered. "Your elders mean to have you hateful and unwilling so that the Mikealsons remain always as they are. Lonely, isolated, and forgotten. They don't _want_ to break the curse. Each woman needs to be willing, and loving, and capable of loving... If not... then the curse won't be broken."

"The curse that keeps them here on the mountain?" Elena guessed.

"No," the girl groaned. "The one that makes them vampires."


	8. Chapter 8

Although Davina appeared to sleep very well the rest of the night, neither Caroline or Elena did. They kept tossing and turning, eventually laying across from each other with eyes wide open.

"It makes too much sense," Elena whispered.

"I know," Caroline concurred. She swallowed. "So they... want us to fall in love with them... to cure them of their... vampiric affliction?"

"But why do they stay kept on the mountain?" Elena wanted to know. At Caroline's shrug, she sucked on her lip and chewed it. "The run felt... too much like life or death to me. And you can't tell me the rest of us who ran weren't slaughtered."

"They even said only one goes home," Caroline recalled.

Elena pulled her covers over her shoulder.

"Maybe we've all been lied to," she suggested. "Who really knows the truth? Davina... her village looks so forward to the run, but if she was one of seven, where are the rest of them?"

"Eaten," Caroline guessed.

It was a morbid thought, but not entirely without merit.

That all being said, they didn't sleep a wink after the fact, too many thoughts swirling in their heads.

When the sun rose, so too did Davina, yawning and pretending not to see them watching her. She had no qualms about brushing and braiding her own hair, feeling free to decorate herself with the things in the green colored dresser. She gave a delightful smile when she discovered the dresses in her armoire, and turned to face the girls with a velvet gown in hand.

"Will someone help me lace up?" she asked.

"Where are you going?" Caroline asked.

Elena sat up to go and help her.

"To meet with Kol," she said evenly. "I want to start as soon as possible. You can't fake love. I know I'll need time."

Elena helped her into the dress and tied it neatly.

"You can't be serious," Caroline demanded. "Letting her go off alone?"

"I'm not," Elena said coolly, and caught Davina's hand as she made to leave. "Now you do mine."

A big smile crossed her face, and Elena plucked any old thing from the hanger and pulled it on. It was a deep purple that shifted into a violet hue with her every step. She ignored her stinging cuts and any thought of a corset, but donned hoop skirt and pulled her hair away from her face into a high pony tail.

"What, you're going to leave me here?"

"I want answers," Elena said, determined.

"I'm not going." Caroline folded her arms.

"I'm not asking," Elena muttered, and pulled the bell.

Davina frowned, trying the door several times before looking at Elena.

"They must worry that you two will want to run off," she deduced. "I'll have to ask for a key."

"So you can go to woo whats-his-face?"

"Kol," Davina said sharply. "His name is Kol."

"It doesn't matter what his name is," Elena retorted. "They're holding us all against our will."

"I'm here completely voluntarily," Davina reminded her.

"So why did they lock you in?" Elena pressed. "All these rooms and they put you with us?"

Davina ignored that.

The handmaidens unlocked the door and stilled to see them there.

"Hello," Davina said. "I'm Davina, Kol's intended. I would like to meet him to break our fast, and perhaps speak with him for a time. Could you lead us there?"

They looked at Elena, who passively looked back.

"Elijah thinks I'm his one," she said flatly.

They turned and opened a space for them to walk.

It was hard, being flanked by women so closely, walking such narrow halls. By the time they took a flight of stairs down and through a pair of massive wooden doors, Elena was sweating from the many layers of her skirt, pain and proximity.

"Well, well!" chirped Kol, upon seeing them. "Sweet creature, you managed to wrangle the thorny mistress herself!"

"She's worried you'll hurt me," Davina beamed, and curtsied politely. "I hope we aren't interrupting?"

"Not at all, darling. Come, sit," he cooed, and waved his hand above his shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

Footmen dressed in regal uniform jumped to move and procure a chair, seemingly from no where. They slid it in by his side and he leaned his elbow on the back of it, too casually.

Davina took the seat with a blush and a grin.

"Will you eat with us, Elena?" Elijah asked her.

"Not a thing," she said firmly. "I have questions."

"Eat first," Davina suggested. "Look at all these fine fruits and delicious pastries. You shouldn't be so rude."

Elena fixed her with a patented older sister look that had Jeremy scurrying back into his room, even at his age. It made the girl wilt a little, lean closer to the vampire's side like he was somehow the lesser of two evils.

"Now, now," Kol said playfully. "There's no need for that kind of attitude. She's trying to make you feel less tense, darling."

"Don't call me darling," Elena said tightly. She looked to Elijah. "Is the reason you dragged me back to this castle for me to fall in love with you and break the curse of your vampirism?"

He stilled, almost to the point he wasn't breathing.

"Yes," he said finally. "That was the purpose of your selection."

"Will it make you human?"

"Yes."

She swallowed.

"Why is the run every hundred or so years?"

"Because the last ladies we take into our home die," Elijah said fairly. "It wouldn't be fair of us to start anew when a brother has every chance with the woman they last chose."

"So you'll wait the eighty odd years it takes for Caroline or me or Davina to die," she confirmed. "Before you put the next call out?"

"Yes," he said simply.

She squared her shoulders.

"See?" Davina said gently. "They want us to love them, Elena."

"And in all the people that have come before us," Elena retorted, whip sharp. "Why has no one ever fallen in love with this lot, if they are so worthy of being loved?"

"Oh, stop," Davina admonished. "It isn't so nefarious as your people made it out to be. Love can't be bought or commanded, it must just happen."

"Are you a romantic, sweet one?" Kol said, batting his lashes at her.

"I might be," she teased, beaming at him boldly. "Perhaps these girls are too. Did you know they don't mention the curse, in Mystic Falls - just the run?"

"We know," Klaus said coolly. "We've advised them to explain. But they refuse, time and again. Too proud."

"You never send any of our girls home," Elena said, trembling. "Hundreds of years, so many families you destroy-"

"Well if you were sent knowing what we needed of you, we wouldn't have to slaughter the masses now would we?" he grumbled.

The light in Davina's eyes went out.

Elena felt a stab of vindication.

"Davina," she said softly. "How many of your friends came willingly into the forest with you?"

"Seven," she said, and smiled at Kol, though it was a touch softer than before. "But you chose me."

"That I did," he mused. "You're so beautiful and daring. I adore that in a life partner."

"Where are they?" Elena pressed.

There was silence.

"What do you mean?" Davina tried to laugh, but the sudden drop in mood did not go unnoticed by her. "They work here now, one of the staff. They have good lodgings and food."

"Make a liar of yourself," Elena dared the King. She looked him dead in the eye. "Tell me where the rest of the girls who ran are."

His jaw flexed. He said nothing.

"They work here now," Davina said. She blinked her large eyes at Kol. "Don't they? Aren't they just - being trained to work here?"

"Does it matter?" Kol wondered. "You're here, and you're safe and well, and in such a beautiful dress to compliment you-"

Davina shot to her feet. She put a hand over her mouth, then skipped over to Elena, who collected her in her arm. She gave Klaus a dead eyed look, and ignored the other two brothers, scooping Davina closer to stride out of the hall with her head held high.


	9. Chapter 9

Time passed funnily in the castle.

Not that it passed any differently, as though by magic. But it moved both faster and slower. Possibly because Caroline and Elena had nothing to do, and the handmaidens did not feed them.

When Davina came back the next day, she had a flower tucked behind her ear and soft shadows under her eyes. Her throat was bare of any marks, but she didn't look well.

She laid out on her bed with a long breath out, and then turned to face them.

"You were right. They did kill all my friends," she said softly. "It looks like we were all lied to. My village made them out to be such badly done by heroes..."

"And ours let us know before hand they were villains," Caroline said. She pursed her lips. "What was Kol like, today?"

"Squeamish about me crying," she admitted. "He tried to make me laugh all day. But he didn't lie - or at least, I think he didn't. He said he killed a number of my friends in the run. He said it's a part of him I'll need to adjust to."

"Is it?" Elena said, voice hard. "Why do you need to adjust, when it's him that apparently needs you so much?"

Davina didn't say anything for a time.

"They said if you needed clothes washed or mended, or a bath, you could pull the bell and ask," she told the roof. "But if you asked for food or books, you'd have to come out and ask them personally."

"I suppose that's how they think they'll lure us out," Caroline grumbled. "By keeping us deprived of entertainment and starving. No matter. We're entertaining enough for ourselves."

"The King said you might say that," Davina mentioned. "He also said to tell you that if you starve, he will come into the sanctuary and force feed you until you come out."

"Mercy," Elena muttered. "What a charming creature."

"Creature indeed," Caroline said freely. "Once we have a plan, we're going to run away. Is there any point in asking if you will come, or are you bent on breaking this obscene curse?"

Davina smiled.

"I want to break the curse," she said softly. "Once the Originals revert into their human form, so too do the rest of the vampires down the bloodline they've created. If we cure the Mikealsons, we cure the rest."

"Oh?" Caroline ventured. "And how do you know that?"

"Because it's been done before," Davina explained. "With two of ours. Sage and then Marcel. She cured the eldest, Finn, and he cured the youngest, Rebekah."

"Really?" Elena said curiously.

"Yes."

"What did Kol do with you today? Did he show you around, or did you just talk?"

"We talked, and danced."

"To no music?"

"Oh, there was music! It was so lovely, far better than anything back home. I think he was showing off for me."

"What, they just summoned a handful of musicians at a moment's notice?"

"No, a few of them live here, on the mountain, for this exact purpose."

"They staff musicians?"

"Apparently."

"Spoiled, the lot of them."

"They were well fed and dressed, so it wasn't like they weren't looked after." Davina thought a moment. "If I may be honest, I'm aware they aren't employed for Kol rather than the other two, specifically Elijah. He's a musical prodigy, apparently, who likes to practice new compositions often; I heard from my grandfather Klaus likes to listen when he paints. He's completed a number of paintings around the halls, he told me this morning."

Caroline screwed up her face.

"Why would your grandfather know what the King likes?"

Davina's face fell.

"You two have been done a great injustice, having no information on which you can carry on," she said, perhaps a touch too wisely for her years. "Yes, they blindsided me by making the vampires seem rather harmless, but at least they let me have all the information. Has anyone ever told you about the packets the Mikealsons sent out last century?"

"No," Elena said.

"Right. So... it's essentially a list of personality traits, bad habits, and what they'd like in a partner. You know, so you could choose... which one you think you'd match best."

"So you're telling me that somewhere in time, the Mikealsons sent out a-... courting checklist?"

"Well, yes. We're all flying blind here, there's no middle man to be the in-between. Letters and arranged meetings at the boarder are all they have."

"It is cruel, that we know nothing like what you know," Elena acknowledged. "But you're helping us a great deal, now."

Davina beamed, her wide eyes glittering with pride.

"I do so hope we all fall in love," she said with hope hanging heavy in her voice. "I would adore having sisters of my own."

Caroline and Elena shared a look, before distracting the girl with more questions about her precious Kol. They already had a plan to escape the castle and run off, starting the very next day.

* * *

The women both got ready, wearing breeches and boots under their gowns. Elena tucked a fire-poker down the back of her dress, holding herself ramrod straight, and Caroline hid her own in her riding boot.

The handmaidens came at Davina's pull of the bell, and the doors swung open.

"We're all going down for breakfast today," she said cheerfully.

"Oh, I suddenly don't feel so sure about myself," Caroline said, pressing a hand to her brow. She stumbled forward, shoulder down. When one of the maidens made to grab her, she yelped loudly and held her arm, bent double. "Oh, the pain, the pain! My poor shoulder!"

"Caroline!" Davina exclaimed, rushing to her side with the maids who flustered and held up their hands. "Are you okay? Did they not offer you any blood?"

"They did," Elena said simply. She had pulled off her dress and was on the other side of the wall of women, holding the poker out in a firm hand. "Everyone in the room. Now. Or I will start swinging."

Caroline straightened with her own fire-poker in hand, and shoved her way through the women. She undressed in an easy pull and tossed her hair back, slamming the poker down hard on the wall as one of the ladies meant to make a run for it.

"Don't," Caroline said. "Really, don't."

The key was still in the door, so all Elena and Caroline had to do was ward them in.

"What are you doing?" Davina protested.

"You can come with us," Elena said. "There's still time."

"No, no you can't," she said desperately. "Please, you have to break the curse!"

"No we don't," Caroline said flippantly, and shut the door, turning the lock with a decided nod. "Right, where to now?"

Elena lead the way, both of them set to an easy trot. Perhaps too easily, they dashed through the kitchen and then out into the wider courtyard, before breaking into a full tilt run.

Though Caroline's sense of direction was not accurate, Elena's was. She had estimated which way it was to their town judging only by the view from their window alone. Even if they didn't find Mystic Falls exactly, they would find the edge of their barrier, and make themselves free.

It was much easier to run the forest when it wasn't so dark, and with Caroline and a weapon at her side. They skidded down an incline and bolted onward, slowing but never stopping. They had been at it for a long time, both of them dripping sweat, when finally they took a moment to catch their breath.

"How much further, do you think?" Caroline panted.

"I don't know. It's a mountain. It's big." Elena wiped her sleeve over her brow and started walking again, bracing the pain in her side. "Come on. We have to keep moving."

"My ribs ache."

"Mine too."

"And I can't breathe properly," Caroline lamented.

"At least you're still breathing," Elena quipped, beginning to stride determinedly toward salvation.

"Just, just wait one more minute."

"No. I don't know how long it will take and I don't want to be out here when the sun goes down."

"You won't," called a voice.

Elena whirled with the poker in her hand, but could do nothing.

Caroline was already under Klaus' arm, her expression vacant. He looked so smug she wanted to beat his smile off his face, but with Caroline so close to him, and clearly under his spell, she couldn't.

"What was the plan?" he mused. "Lock away my staff and run all the way home? Like we wouldn't hear them ringing the callbell for minutes on end?"

Elena didn't like the use of the word 'we'. She turned and swung her fire-poker, and Elijah caught it, his mouth in an unimpressed line. He took it from her hands so swiftly she barely felt it leave.

She took a step back, but that would only bring her closer to the Hybrid. So she darted her eyes to the side.

"Elena," Elijah said patiently. "No more running."

"Even if you force me, or us, never to run again," she muttered. "We won't ever want to be here. We won't ever break your curse. So let us go or kill us."

"They're bad for each other," Klaus said loudly. "They make each other bold. I suppose we'll have to separate them."

"No," Caroline said softly, staring up at the side of his face. "No, please don't."

"Will you promise not to run?"

"Yes."

"Will you promise to try and spend time with me?"

"Yes."

"Will it all be a lie?"

"Yes," Caroline said. "Obviously."

He cracked a grin and shot it at his older brother, who only opened his hand at Elena in the direction she'd already come.

"Walk, please," he said.

She didn't move.

"Kill me," she said. "I'm never going to love you."

"Elena," Caroline said softly. "Don't poke sleeping dragons."

"Clever," the King mused. He tucked Caroline a little closer to him and looked at Elena, who took a step back. "Not so clever. If you hate being made under the compulsion, you'd best just do as you are told. Elijah's patience is not infinite."

Elena thought about running for half a second, but truly did not want to be touched by the vampire. She didn't like the looming threat of his mind control, either, and ducked her eyes to the floor, her shoulders hiking.

"I will follow," she muttered. "Don't touch me."

"As you wish," Elijah murmured, and walked ahead of her.

Elena watched Caroline nurse her sore arm to her chest, gazing at the Hybrid's face.

"Will you hurt me?" she wondered absently.

"If you give me no reason to keep you cruelly, I will treat you as kindly as I am able," he mused. He stroked her face with the very tips of his fingers and Elena scowled and started to follow. "There now. Isn't it better when you're calm and gentle for me?"

"No," Caroline said.

"You're disgusting," Elena shot at the back of his head.

"I've been called worse," he said brightly, and tilted Caroline's chin up with his fingers. "You will walk with me back to the castle. You are not going to leave the grounds without me again. Am I perfectly clear?"

"Yes," Caroline whispered.

Elena's heart crashed into her feet and she thought about running by herself. Could she leave, knowing what Caroline was like? Could she betray her friend, who had failed to save herself by saving Elena?

She saw Elijah looking back at her and immediately dropped her gaze to the floor to avoid him having any chance of controlling her. She wiped the tears from her cheeks as she followed, but that did not mean she could stop crying.


	10. Chapter 10

Caroline woke from her compelled haze the very instant her back heel touched the tile of the castle. She jolted hard and away from the Hybrid, flinging herself bodily from his side. Her hand reflexively came up to hold her throat, and she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Oh relax," he implored her. "I hardly did anything heinous."

"You-!" she said. She looked to Elena, who was following miserably, quietly crying, and then back to the Hybrid. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. Finally, she exhaled a breath, and stuck her hand out to Elena.

Elena took it, her head down to hide the traces of tears. Her grip was trembling and sweaty, but it held fast on Caroline's hand.

"Come eat," the Hybrid said.

"I couldn't stomach it," she said, almost bewildered. "What-? You think I want to eat? I-! You've just - faulted me, in trying to survive-!"

"Survival doesn't look like running away from me," he told her broadly. "On that you can rest assured."

Caroline shook her head and tugged on Elena's hand, to drag her past the other Original and toward the grand staircase.

"You must eat!" The Hybrid called out after her. "You're running out of time to be stubborn and starve yourself! If I must storm your fortress I will!"

Caroline said nothing. What could she say? Anything that sprang to mind was echoed by the threat that he might take away Elena. That being said, she skidded to a halt just near the stairs and turned around, blinking at him, an idea suddenly upon her. If she had the rules he set by her, fine. She would just have to outwit him.

"That girl," she said, mouth almost clumsy around the nervous words. "Davina. Get her out of our room."

"Caroline," Elena said, pulling at her fingers.

"No. No, she's no good for us. I don't want her there," she decided. She tested him with an arrogant tilt of her chin. "I don't want her in there."

"She's only a child," Elena whispered. "Who will look after her, if we don't?"

"If you ask this of me," Klaus told her, quite a way down the hall, but by no means misunderstood. "I will do it."

"So do it," she replied, and started up the stairs again.

"What are you thinking?" Elena hissed, pulling her hand away. She wiped her face angrily. "Caroline she's half brainwashed to believe that these men are somehow her allies-"

"So be it," Caroline swore. Loudly, she went on. "Let her play her hand at princess in the castle. That's all well and good for her!"

"We mustn't allow it," Elena said sharply. Her tears were still falling. She had to hurry to catch Caroline's purposeful stride.

"Let her be consumed by their handsome and their wealth," Caroline said, gaining real speed now. "Let her fall for their wicked charms! Let her be lured into their false kindness and seduced by their music and their fine clothes! If it means that she breaks Kol's curse, all the better for her!"

"Caroline-!" Elena said hotly.

Caroline turned and placed one finger over her lips. She bowed her head to acknowledge Elena's distress, and then kept talking.

"I know it would be easier," Caroline confessed, taking no time to quieten her tone. "To give in to handsome and kind and riches beyond what we ever could have imagined." She motioned to her ear, then pointed outwards.

They're listening, she mouthed.

Elena blinked, wiped her face, and though she didn't quite understand, nodded.

"But to cast Davina out," Elena said, throaty. "That isn't fair to her."

"But it may be her best chance of surviving," Caroline pressed. She swallowed. "If we are to starve ourselves and fight this fight, we can't do it when she's around, being shown the time of her life. It won't make our cause any fairer."

It clicked in Elena's eyes. The idea lit her up from the inside out.

If Caroline could paint the vampires a picture of their virtues, and have them half convinced she was weaker for it, would they not continue to treat her well? Would they not keep on with flashing their coin and spoiling them rotten? And then, at the end of it all, would they not trust her to go for a charming horse ride in the forest, where she could bludgeon them unconscious and flee?

Elena gave her a brief, wobbly smile.

"It would be nice," Elena admitted. "To have something to do in that room."

"Or out in the sun," Caroline sighed theatrically. "Alas. We will suffer no more for having Davina in the room to tempt us. Surely to keep to ourselves would be the best way to fortify."

"Of course," Elena said, and took Caroline's hand again. "Of course. You're so clever."

"I know," Caroline beamed, and knew full well she was.


End file.
